Today's NY Times article on cosmetic surgery in DR

DR1 News carried the stroy

Apparently these are the really "ratty" clinics that are more fly-by-night than normal

the infections were cleared up with anti-biotics and none were fatal.

Not nice, but not fatal.

You get what you pay for. Of course, if the boobs start to fall down next week, there is not hope for getting any satisfaction, since sueing a doctor here is not yet a national past-time!

HB

I have not read the story, but so far no names of clinics have been mentioned, thus everyone gets branded negatively. The local college of plastic surgeons should have made a statement on this issue, standing by their members. The names of physicians that have leaked into the press are all unknowns, with the exception of the Contreras doctor who became famous after he was banned from operating and is not a member of the college.

There are several fine plastic surgeons here whose price tag cannot be described as cheap. Anyone looking for cheap doctors for plastic surgery is looking for trouble. Medicine is not cheap in this country, although because of the peso devaluation, operations with the better physicians are much less costly than in the US. But stick to the best doctors that have a large local clientele.

Personally, feel exercise will solve most problems, and people should accept what they come with. Never understood spending all that $ to have someone cut one up. Evidenced my sister's nose surgery for a breathing rather than aesthetic problem, and it was all blue and bleeding. Would never wish that on anyone. She operated with Dr. Luis Espaillat, one of the leading plastic surgeons whose clinic looks more like a plush hotel, and quickly recovered. But it's not a pretty cut.

How to tell the difference

A reputable plastic surgeon will send an overweight patient off with a diet and exercise sheet. The rest will wield the knife and bank the cash.

Chiri

source of problems

These operations are a temporary solution to a permanent problem.
At the heart of the issue is that we eat too much and execise too little.
I've known people who have spent on this to go back right to where they started. Sad indeed.

The other funny thing that I noticed is that in this article all the key speakers are male. My question is where is the strong Dominican female leadership on this issue? I know they are out there, but why did they not speak out?

Peace

Dolores said:

I have not read the story, but so far no names of clinics have been mentioned, thus everyone gets branded negatively. But it's not a pretty cut.

Click to expand...

As you probably know, that is typical from foreign media sources to paint the entire DR with the same brush. Its something I don't like because it gives a schewed and incorrect vision of what the country is "suppose" to be like.

For example, I hate it when I see a documentary on a Dominican baseball player and all they show is the most severe poverty of the country. Now, I understand they are trying to make a point about these people going from rags to riches, but I also know that many of them were shoe shine boys and most shoe shine boys hang in the Central Park of the town where it tends to be "nice" and yet, not one shot of those areas are presented. It kind of gives a skewed view of the DR since the DR is not a place that can easily be classified.

With the plastic surgeons, I believe the purpose of that article was to raise awareness of improper operations done at little known out of the way places, but I also think that the other purpose of the article was to give people the impression that its better for them to do their operations in the U.S. (in this case) than in the Dominican Republic, despite the DR having doctors at par with Americans when it comes to expertise and knowledge.

BTW, I also don't like it when only nice areas are shown of the DR (usually by Dominicans, foreign media sources make more than a point about the poverty of the DR). I would like the media to give balanced views and truly let the people decide on those views. Maybe its just me and maybe its not, but having different media sources giving a certain image respectively is not fair and balance to me. Fair and balance to me is when every single media source gives both side of the story. Those are my two cents in all of this.

On the one hand it is unfair to convey that ALL plastic surgeons in the DR are quacks, simply because this is not true. Among the few horrific ones, there are quite a few others that are honorable, highly skilled professionals.

On the other hand, a big part of the problem lies within the DR medical community due to their failure to monitor and punish bad doctors. Medical quality boards in each American state have the authority to fine, suspend or terminate the licenses of bad doctors. There is a confidential due process followed by the publication of findings that either exonerate or assign blame to claims of malpractice. True, there has been an explosion in the cost of malpractice insurance in the U.S., making it hard even for the good doctors to make ends meet, but at least there are mechanisms to weed out the rotten apples. In the DR, unfortunately, doctors literally can get away with murder.

-Tordok

Dolores,
I couldn't agree more - stick with what you came with! Personally, I'm pretty slow to go for medically recommended surgery, I'd never go for unnecessary surgery.